A few years ago, I was your typical office-worker: stressed out, uneven energy, overweight, and inconsistent complexion. Now I'm just your typical 28-year old urban hunter-gatherer on a quest to be healthy, and having a few adventures along the way. See my full bio.
You may have noticed the banner at right for the 2nd Annual New York City Barefoot Run. The lineup continues to grow: Chris McDougall, Dan Lieberman, Barefoot Ted, Barefoot Ken Bob, Jason Robillard, Lee Saxby, Erwan Le Corre, Michael Sandler, Daniel Howell, Esther Gohkale -- and no doubt more. Vivobarefoot, Merrell, and Injinji are our sponsors and we've got a few more in the works. We have over 100 people signed up already. Saturday will be clinics, a minimalist footwear expo, and talks by the "kudus" (listed above). Sunday will be a ferry ride to Governors Island, followed by a run on the island -- plus a few surprises. September 24-25th. It's $75 bucks all-in, including a free tech tee plus lots of other stuff. Don't miss it.
There are just a few spots left in Erwan Le Corre's 5-day MovNat clinics in West Virginia in June and July. If you're looking for a little summer vacation which will leave you healthier, stronger, and more refreshed at the end, this is it. Check it out.
Here's the Rocky IV training montage -- an oldie but a goodie. Functional fitness before anyone realized it was a thing. Though if you're training specifically for a boxing match, I wouldn't take either guy as a model for what to do. It is, after all, a movie.
I'm the type of person who will jump on any new trend, just because it's cool. The Thigh Master, Tai Bo -- hell, if I had been alive in the 70s I would have been pounding out the miles in newfangled pair of Nikes instead of barefoot running. Because I'm flaky like that. So let's see what Outside Magazine had to say about the Top 10 Health and Fitness Trends of 2010.
10. iFitness (health apps) -- I should track more stuff, but I don't. Tracking will continue to improve, this is here to stay.
8. Boot Camp -- Is that like a more gimmicky form of CrossFit?
7. The Shake Weight -- This should be on the top 10 trends of the 21st century. Here's the original ad, plus the SNL spoof (hilarious adult subject matter).
1. Paleolithic Fitness -- Our very own Erwan Le Corre and MovNat, picking up top honors. And the article points to a lot of paleo elements. Totally sweet.
So let's check the score board.
Dead on with 5: Vitamin D, Gluten-Free, Barefoot Running, and Paleolithic Fitness. And I'll count CrossFit as better form of Boot Camp.
Kind of missed on 1: iFitness and better tracking
Avoided4 other fads or jokes: Shake Weight, Tone-Up Shoes / Clothes, P90X, TRX
That's a pretty damn good tally. Welcome to the epicenter of the health revolution. At least, until I go chasing the hot new trends of 2011.
Update: A few commenters have pointed out that P90X and TRX incorporate positive non-faddish developments, like HIT (high intensity training), higher movement variation, and more compound movements. You're right, and that is all good. But 10 years from now, will people still be doing P90X and TRX? I don't think so. I don't think HIT is a fad, but I do think the popularity of specific branded approaches are more likely to be fads...particularly when there is little community (CrossFit) or deeper meaning to the approach.
So many good things happening, I can barely stay on top of it all.
1. Outside Magazine features Erwan Le Corre and MovNat. Outside Magazine is a big deal, and I'm really happy for Erwan. It's a great overview of MovNat, the connection to paleo eating and lifestyle stuff -- but it also has some sick stuff on Erwan's background. Get this:
Then, at age 18, he happened to watch a television show about a 45-year-old Parisian stuntman named Jean Haberey. At one point, Haberey jumped out of a helicopter into an iceberg-strewn ocean wearing only swim trunks. It was the most outrageous thing Le Corre had ever seen—and he wanted to do it, too. A year later, he tracked Haberey down, and for the next seven years he followed him and his other disciples around the French metropolis, playing high-risk games: a "fight club of natural movement," as Le Corre puts it.
"He was the first guy to take people up onto the roofs of Paris," Le Corre said. "He also took us down into the underground, always barefoot, with no gear at all, to train people how to move silently like cats through urban obstacles … especially at night, when everyone was asleep."
Once, Haberey and Le Corre held a sit-up competition while dangling by their legs from a bridge over an eight-lane superhighway. Another time, Le Corre climbed along the transom of a tower crane, legs dangling in the void nearly a hundred feet above the ground. "It was crazy," Le Corre recalls, "but you just felt so alive."
Haberey's urban antics helped kick off the parkour craze, but Le Corre, like most of his followers, eventually grew disillusioned. "I supported him for a while," Le Corre says, "but it turned into a cult of his personality. It became too dark and underground, all about helping him, not others."
And I'm super excited for what Erwan has in store for the future:
One question we all seem to be pondering is finally asked out loud by Fred Fombrun: "What exactly am I supposed to do when I get back home?" he says. "There aren't a lotta parks where I live in northern New Jersey."
Le Corre is working on an answer. In 2009, he met Robb Wolf, the influential CrossFit instructor and The Paleo Solution author, through a mutual friend. Inspired by Wolf's story and the viral success of CrossFit, Le Corre began hammering out a business plan modeled on it: he hopes to train and certify instructors, who will license the brand for their own gyms or create grown-up outdoor playgrounds like ours. Or both.
I'll take this moment to point out that I was the mutual friend who put Erwan and Robb Wolf in touch!
2. My buddy Michael Malice, author of UFC Champion Matt Hughes' book Made in America, was on Fox News talking about legalizing MMA. He did a great job. Why was MMA banned originally? Too brutal? "Human cock-fighting," as John McCain put it. But the reality is that there are few serious injuries or deaths...far fewer than football or boxing and probably a lot of other sports. And even if there were more injuries, it's just more of the nanny state protecting people against themselves. (First 3 minutes.)
The bones were cut by stone tools and smashed open for marrow, suggesting that the Neandertals were cannibalized before the ground collapsed beneath their remains and buried them soon after their death, 49,000 years ago.
This interview is with the NYC Barefoot Run participant coming in from the furthest distance so far....Sweden.
Name: Elisabet (Liz) Holmdahl
Age: 34
Location: Luleå, Sweden
Profession: Swedish Air Force Officer
What's your story? How did you end up running this way?
The day I learned to walk was the day that I started to run, and I still haven´t stopped. As a child I did it for the fun of it, later on, the competitive side of sports just happened to suck me in. For a number of years I competed in a variety of sports, one of them being Biathlon Orienteering. In that particular sport I managed quite well and got to compete in the World Championships. But things weren’t as funny as they used to be. In the world of specialized sports the outcome of the competition were very much dependant on the cost and quality of the sports equipment. I needed a break and something to do that would get me the joy of my childhood back again.
Time went by and then, two years ago I discovered “MovNat”. I felt as if someone finally articulated my subconscious need for a straightforward training and movement philosophy. One thing led to another and soon barefoot running became a part of my training. Things really started to heat up this spring. I bought my first Vibram Five Fingers after reading Christopher McDougals book “Born to Run”, and was surprised at how easy I was able to adapt to the new running technique. Things just felt so natural and running has never been more fun and pain free. I´ve never looked back since.
Do you run barefoot or with minimalist shoes?
As for the running, I prefer to do it completely barefoot on roads but the baby-skin soles of my feet still prevents me from doing it on rougher surfaces, but I´m working hard on that one. I really like running in the wilderness (without any roads or paths) with the VFFs on. It brings such a connection with the nature and situational awareness of the surrounding. Being unfocused can really hurt ;-)
How long have you been doing it?
For about a year.
Interesting observations from your time running this way?
My husband hates to run. At least he used to. That’s because he always got shin splints from doing it. But since he started to run bare foot, no problems at all! I mean nothing! Nowadays he does it as often as he can, and I have to hold him back so his body will have a chance to ease in to it.
A couple of days ago I went out for a long run in the rain. Five Fingers on and everything was fine. Then suddenly a burning sensation under one of my toes. Shoot! My first chafe in Five Fingers. “Shoe” off and there it was, a small scratch. I blamed the wet conditions and perhaps a small stone. “Shoe” back on again, and tried to run for a while. Nope! It would only get worse. I couldn´t afford hurting my feet with the New York trip so close. So what to do? “Shoe” off of course. Leaving it on only seemed to make things worse anyway. “Ordinary” people really looked puzzled by the oddball that came running in the pouring rain with only one shoe on, but I´m glad I could offer them some laughter on that freezing day.
Isn´t it funny? We put on shoes to protect our feet but sometimes we have to take them off to care for them.
Why are you coming to the NYC Barefoot Run? What are you most excited about?
It’s really all about meeting the people that share the same passion. I´ve met so many wonderful persons through Barefoot running, Paleo eating and MovNat. And I have no doubt that this is going to be a milestone in my life in that sense. The run is going to be fantastic and I’m really hyped about it, but I’m also really looking forward to attending the barefoot running seminars during my stay there.
Anything else interesting you want to say?
Now days I´m back to my joyous inner child when it comes to training. I´m really passionate about exercise and especially running. I do it for my own sake, not to reach a specific time, but because I really enjoy it. My family enjoys it and it´s something that has greatly benefited us all. It´s all about having a healthy lifestyle, and enjoying the life that you have.
There is no single "Hunter-Gatherer Diet". There have been innumerable hunter-gatherer tribes who ate different foods depending on their time in history, geography, season, and culture. Yet they had many commonalities in what they ate -- and didn't eat.
Similarly, this growing evolutionary movement goes under many names. Here's my list. Am I missing any? What other terms does this movement go by? Are their more neighboring tribes? What terms do you use and why?
Ancestral (Ancestral Diet, Ancestral Health)
Caveman (Caveman Diet)
Evolution (Evolutionary Fitness, The New Evolution Diet, The Evolution Diet)
Human (Human Diet)
Hunter-Gatherer (Hunter-Gatherer Diet)
MovNat (MovNat Lifestyle)
Native (Native Nutrition, Native Diet)
Neanderthal (Neaderthin, Neaderthal Diet)
Paleo (Paleo Diet, Paleolithic Diet, Paleolithic Lifestyle, Zone Paleo)
